Three “radicalised and fanatical” women, who were arrested here for allegedly planning an “imminent and violent” attack in France, were guided by Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Syria, Francois Molins, Paris prosecutor said on Friday.
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“The act shows that Daesh intends to use women as combatants”, Prosecutor Francois Molins said in a press conference in Paris, using the preferred French term for Islamic State.
Three women were arrested Thursday night in connection with a vehicle containing six gas cylinders found in Paris, near the Notre Dame cathedral, over the weekend, according to police.
Three female suspects in the probe into the auto found near Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris were also arrested Thursday, with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve saying they were believed to be preparing attacks.
The other man she was engaged to, Larossi Abballa, murdered two police officers in June and managed to film the aftermath before being killed in a police raid.
The arrests of three women Thursday came in a “veritable race against the clock”, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters.
Police were alerted to the possibility of a terror attack on Sunday, when a bar employee working near Notre Dame Cathedral noticed a gas cylinder on the back seat of a parked auto.
The auto also contained three jerry cans of diesel and was found with its hazard lights on.
The women are reported to have been carrying knives when arrested.
Police shot and wounded one of the women during the operation in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, south-east of the city.
The 19-year-old woman has been named by French media as Ines Madani, born at Tremblay in the north-eastern Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.
He said Sarah H., who was shot in the leg during the raid, had stabbed a police officer through the open window of a auto, while Ines stabbed another officer as she tried to escape.
Her current fiancee – a third man – was arrested as part of a series of raids yesterday which French police say foiled a major terror plot against the French capital.
France has been on high alert since January of 2015, when it was hit by a series of Islamic State-linked terrorist attacks. Police had earlier arrested her father, but later released him.
Four people were detained earlier in the week. It said the 19-year-old woman stabbed the officer and was injured.
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The arrests followed a deadly summer in France in which 86 people were killed when a truck ploughed into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice.
